How to Get Your PhD A Handbook for the Journey

A unique take on how to survive and thrive in the process your PhD, this is a book that stands out from the crowd of traditional PhD guides. Compiled by a leading UK researcher, and written in a highly personal one-to-one manner, How to Get Your PhD showcases the thoughts of diverse and distinguished minds hailing from the UK, EU, and beyond, spanning both academia and industry. With over 150 bitesize nuggets of actionable advice, it offers more detailed contributions covering topics such as career planning, professional development, diversity and inclusion in science, and the nature of risk in research.

How to Get Your PhD: A Handbook for the Journey is as readable for people considering a PhD as it is for those in the middle of one: aiming to clarify the highs and lows that come when training in the profession of research, while providing tips & tricks for the journey. This concise yet complete guide allows students to “dip in” and read just what they need, rather than adding to the mountain of reading material they already have.

Gavin Brown, Professor, University of Manchester

Gavin Brown is Professor of Machine Learning, and Director of Research for the Department of Computer Science, at the University of Manchester, UK. He obtained his PhD in 2004 from the University of Birmingham, winning the British Computer Society Distinguished Dissertation Award, given annually for the most outstanding UK thesis in Computer Science. In 2005 he joined Manchester, and since then has built a team working on Machine Learning and Data Science, contributing both fundamental and applied research, funded by the UK and EU government as well as industry sponsors

1. What is a PhD?
2. Things you need to know
3. Things that will happen
4. How to Find your New Idea
5. How to work with a Supervisor
6. Work on Yourself
7. How to Read
8. How to Write
9. How to give Presentations
10. What happens in a Viva?
11. Your Post-PhD Life
12. Skills you will have gained
i. Choosing a Career in Science, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell DBE FRS
ii. Becoming a Reflective Professional, Professor Victoria Burns
iii. Doing your PhD as part of a team, Professor Steve Furber CBE FRS FREng
iv. Saying yes to opportunity and no, Dr Lucy Kissick
v. The Rewards of Risk in Research, Professor Hiranya Peiris
vi. Top Writing Tips, Professor Melanie Leng MBE
vii. Mistakes your Supervisor will make, Professor Jeremy Wyatt
viii. A PhD in Statistics & Data Science, Professor David Hand OBE FBA MMC
ix. Building a Strong Support Network ., Dr Carolyn Virca
x. Inventing Ourselves: Responsibility & Diversity in Research, Dr Shakir Mohamed
xi. Public Engagement in Research, Dr Jonny Brooks-Bartlett
xii. Your career is up to you, Dr Jennifer Polk